Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences: earthworm protease is expected to be used in the prevention and treatment of hepatitis B

Recently, when he Rongqiao, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied the role of Lumbrokinase isoenzyme (lki) in anti hepatitis B, he observed that one of the isoenzyme had high activity for hepatitis B core antigen (HBeAg) The researchers call the isoenzyme hbeagase, whose degradation site is on the linear epitope of the interaction between HBeAg molecule and T lymphocyte, and also can reduce the HBeAg secreted by HepG2.2.15 cells The work was published in Chinese life science Earthworms are annelid animals, living in the soil, they are the natural cultivators of the soil Because of its unique biological properties, earthworm is widely used in biochemistry, pharmacology, environmental science, toxicology, food science, agricultural science and technology As medicine, earthworm has been widely used in basic and clinical research It has been reported that earthworm can synthesize a group of protease molecules, which can be used to treat some cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, nephropathy, cirrhosis and other diseases At present, there are many studies on the mechanism of earthworm protease in antithrombotic and organ fibrosis inhibition In terms of antithrombotic activity, earthworm protease can degrade fibrinogen and fibrin, and also inhibit platelet aggregation Earthworm protease has the activity of tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), so it is called earthworm kinase (LK) by Japanese scientists Lki has been studied and applied in the intervention of cerebral thrombosis and myocardial infarction In terms of inhibiting organ fibrosis, lki has the effect of reducing fibronectin, collagen, laminin and other molecules Therefore, lki has potential application value in pulmonary fibrosis, renal fibrosis and liver fibrosis "The reason why earthworm protease can be widely used is that they have relatively broad substrate specificity Moreover, these protease molecules can be induced by the substrate to change the conformation of the active site, so as to improve the selectivity of the substrate " About herongjo He believes that earthworms are under the dual pressure of environment and genetics, which makes the enzyme molecules produced by earthworms have a wide range of substrate specificity to adapt to the changes of their living environment The research results published recently will provide the basis for further study of lki in the prevention and treatment of hepatitis B